Some hockey stories

He was playing for the Rangers and living in Rye. One night he heard some noise in his driveway and saw a large fellow with a flashlight in his car, attempting to remove the stereo.

McPhee immediately ran out. The thief, seeing this little guy coming at him, and having the large flashlight as a weapon, thought he could handle the situation.

Long story short, and needless to say, when the police arrived, the perp was happy to see them.

———————

Mike Knuble:

In ’99-2000, Rangers coach John Muckler was on the verge of being fired (debatable, because Jim Dolan wouldn’t let Neil Smith do the honors for most of that season). But it was one of those situations where you just felt that if the Rangers lost one more in a row, there would have to be a coaching change.

Well, Knuble scored in overtime to save Muckler, I think it was in Washington. Soon after, the coach had a hand in that brilliant trade of Knuble to Boston for Rob DiMaio.

Now the end of the season comes, and the Rangers are in Boston, Muckler and Smith have been fired, John Tortorella is interim coach, and Knuble is in the hallway talking about his former team. It was mentioned to him how he had temporarily saved Muckler’s job.

“What the (byfuglien) was I thinking?” Knuble smiled.

———————

Tony Granato:

(I apologize if I’ve told this one before).

Always an agitator, Granato had goaded Marty McSorley of the Kings into a penalty, and when they came together, Granato speared McSorley, perhaps in the southern hemisphere. Anyway, McSorley — known to have a wee bit of a temper — went berserk. The linesmen were trying to get him into the penalty box, and he was flinging them around like rag dolls trying to get loose and get at Granato.

They finally got him in the box, but McSorley was still going nuts, shaking the glass and pounding on it with his stick, so they gave him a game misconduct. Now they had to escort him to the dressing room, and on the way, McSorley was spinning and flailing, still trying to get free so he could get at Granato. He never did.

A few months later, Granato and Tomas Sandstrom were traded to the Kings for Bernie Nicholls.

Granato’s wife told him, “You can’t go there. That man is there and he is going to kill you.”

My favorite personal story comes from my own days of high school hockey.

I played wing pretty much my whole life until my high school days, when they switched me to D. I wasn’t big, (6’1, 150 soaking wet) but i could skate, and had a decent shot.

Well on this day in 98, while playing on the JV team, I see a turnover about to happen at our defensive blue line, and make a dash from in front of the net up towards the line, sure enough, my teammate stole the puck from their D man, and i was already in the neutral zone all by myself.

I screamed as loud as I could to get his attention, and he slid me a pass, and i had a clear breakaway all the way from my side of the neutral zone.

I came in on the goalie, did a fake forehand shot, went to the backhand, and slid the puck in the net going 5 hole on the goalie.

What made it special for me, was it was my birthday, and it was the first goal i scored that season. And i STILL have that puck.

I think both sports have their fair share of awesome tales, but baseball has more prominence in American history. Just the stories of what teams have done with the Stanley Cup is enough to fill a book.

CT, those are fabulous Cup stories … and my friend Mike Brophy wrote a book, I think it was called, “If the Stanley Cup Could Talk.”

Joekuh, I think it was Tim Taylor who told us way back when that Knuble would be a great power forward, and we kind of laughed at him because Knuble didn’t really gain confidence in the physical side of his game right away. But sure enough, he’s a pretty good power forward in the league, isn’t he?

the last game ever worked by that off-ice official in the penalty box……..still working but never will step in there again…..plus that was brand new glass…..the rink guy “RED” spent all day showing it off as his brand new glass…..almost had a coronary when Marty began ripping it out…….. ha ha ha

2nd, I played soccer, was a defenseman, rarely got scoring opportunities. One time, i found myself with a breakaway, and my shorts fell down while i was on the edge of the box, and i tripped….i had my sliders on so it wasnt totally embarrassing, but the crowd gave me a standing ovation, and it was so so embarrassing.

I was playing in a hockey tournament in California, and I got a pass with the goalie down and out of position, had a WIDE OPEN NET… and totally flubbed the shot. The goalie was able to get his stick in the way and stop the puck. We won the game, but my teammates broke my chops the whole night after that game.

Carp,
i’m no friend of basketball.
when we played on a concrete gym floor in grade school
it was more like rugby, which i enjoyed since i was better
at tackling someone with the ball than actually
shooting into the hoop.

then one summer day i was playing against some friends
and after a layup my chin came down on someone’s head
which caused me to bite the inside of my top lip.
lots of blood. no stitches.
lip recovered.
interest in basketball didn’t.

hey Carp
if you’re looking for people to fill in,
especially when there’s some down time in the
Rangers schedule
i may consider
but
even more important (can’t believe i typed those words!)
is it possible to get a post from
Mitch Beck to enlighten us
about the Whale — are the players developing as well as winning, who is showing promise, who isn’t and why, who is close to NHL ready, is Gernander the right man for the job…

according to bluejackets beat writer
it’s just a matter of other GMs “sniffing” around
due to MDZ getting some time to watch.

hope it doesn’t happen unless it brings back
Rick Nash (haha!)
but
seriously
i’m not happy with his play but i do believe that he’ll turn it around
just hoping that it will be with us and not someone else.

Anyone see 24/7 Penguins Capitals? Although it has my most hated team and another team that has tormented us for years it’s a very good documentary. Should be good for the game I hope it’s like hard knocks and they do it every season that’d be sweet.

Anyone that’s seen it: catch the Slapshot tribute traveling montage? That was sweet

any of you seen “The Price is Right” today with Roenick, Crosby and Ovechkin?

Before she got to the showcase she won two leather chairs with any NHL team logo, 3D HDTV with 4 pairs of 3D glasses, variety of NHL “Fathead”, Air hockey table, rubik’s cube with 6 original teams on it instead of colors, NHL monopoly and Wayne Gretzky McFarlane figure AND 2 tickets to two Stanley Cup Final games! not too shabby! i rather have that than a car!

Noonan,
Yes that was the song from Slapshot, right?!?
That 24/7 was great. I loved the Orr v Englland tilt and the banter during and after.
Also LOVED the Dubi v OV tilt. How bout hem saying,”Nice job, buddy to each other when it was over?!?

Frank Costanza: “Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way.”

Don’t think a minor AHL suspension would stop an MZA call-up, if the Rangers did want to (which they seemingly don’t, in any case). Nazem Kadri still has a two-game AHL ban to serve when/if the Leafs send him down.

Carp,
I was in N.Y. last week and was at MSG for the Rangers’ win over the Coyotes. great game! Anyway, I was telling my uncle I guest blogged for your site before and he said ” I know Carpy. he is a great guy.” Do you know the video replay Judge John? That is him.

so here we are, in the midst of a game, and it’s my turn to serve. Somehow, i hit the ball just right because it got stuck in the overhead heating ducts. So, they get another ball, i serve it again, hit it in the same spot and knock the ball out. Was never able to do it again, and damn, it hurt lol. I was probably 11.

Someone wished me a Happy New Year today. I was taken aback by it and only managed an uncomfortable laugh. I just couldn’t bring myself to returning the wish considering that it’s not even Christmas yet.

Festivius is the 23rd? Damn, I’ll be traveling most of that day. Have to be at the airport at 7:30am and don’t know if Lambert or the Philly airport have free wifi. My grievances may have to wait until much later in the day.

I’m too lazy to look back at the posts, but did anyone else read LB’s artricle this morning? He actually has some nice things to say about Torts. Not to mention discussing how different this team is already with Cally.

Only from 7:30 to 5:30. Then I am demanding my Dad take me to a local hot dog place for dinner and then we’ll sit down and laugh our assens off at Jeff Dunham’s specials that are playing all night on Comedy Central. Maybe after that I’ll air my grievances, as I’m watching Rangers in 60.

I have a few good hockey stories…grew up playing ice hockey in staten island and high school hockey in brooklyn…later played for the powerfully violent Violets of NYU. lol ….well, when we were early teens, my buddy had season tickets to the devils…so we got to skate with the devils players at south mountain arena once a year…. had a race with Dougie Brown…the guy was INSANELY fast…was like a speeding hydrant…then we got to talk with shanny and dave maley (i think was Maley) and my friend hilariously picked his nose and put a monster booger on Maley’s jersey… We were in tears and shanny looked at us like nutsos…then we got some great fist to face pics of the legendary troy crowder..that guy was a monster….. other notables: got to talk with theo fleury of the flames at NJD game..i was a tiny player like him, so he was my idol growing up….. skated with Luc Robitaille right before he left NYR…guy had a lethal shot…he could hit the crossbar at will from nearly anywhere..great guy..we played a pickup game at the new chelsea rink when it first opened..this was like 2 am or so….lastly, our NYU games used to be at 33rd and 10th in the old sky rink…that neighborhood was filled with street walkers…well, when i drove away from game at like 3am, cops pulled me over (i had saved for a great old sports car that looked WAY more expensive than it really was) because all the ladies of the night gathered around my car at the light…one streetwalker asked me if i was ’21 jump street’…i looked very young)…cops ask me to pull over and why I am sweating…i said just came from hockey game…check the trunk(i knew that hockey bag smelled like manure with all the sweat etc) ..they open trunk… female cop yells..this guy got sweaty hockey equipment here..i laughed so hard…good times…i drove away to the sounds of LA women on the old west side highway on way back to brooklyn without a care in the world…wish i could go back to those days…sigh.

I just finished watching Black Swan. Trippy movie. I liked it. Some dope must have lost a dvd screener of the movie, and it ended up online, and I *illegally* downloaded it! Bwaha!. Just saved me $20, and the horror of some freak wanking during the Kunis/Portman lezzie scene, Pee Wee Herman style.

I can definitely vouch for Doug Brown’s speed. I took a week of power skating lessons from the same instructor that Brown learned from. He came in one day and ran through the drills with us. It is amazing how fast these guys can move even at cruising speed. I can almost guarantee the guy that was the Yotes backup the other night would have looked like he was moving in slow motion had he been forced to play.

Rangers are playing up in Montreal during the 93-94 or maybe the 95 season. After the game, the team goes to a bar and the place is really crowded. My wife and I find seclusion in a waitress service alcove in the back of the bar and are hanging out. We are eventually joined by Steve Larmer and Joe Kocur in the alcove. Kocur is chewing a wad of tobacco and is spitting the juice into a garbage can looking receptacle under the counter. After spitting into it at least a dozen times, a waitress comes over with a basket, puts it into the can, and comes out with a basket full of popcorn to bring to a table. The look on Kocur’s face was absolutely hysterical. The 4 of us couldn’t stop laughing for about 5 minutes.

No matter where yu go, and how far back you go on Hockey stories, there are always bound to be some nutty ones.

When I lived in Duluth there were pickup teams all over the place and we got one scraped together from the northerners at the base where a Fighter Pilot who went to Dartmouth hockey tried to cobble a team together. I volunteered to play right wing ( where I always wound up no matter what,) and some of the guys were civies and local. One of them was a goal tender, and he came to the dressing room with all his gear an no chest protector. I asked him where it was and he said that he didn’t wear one..it slowed him down. This guy was a Finn ( up there they called the “Finnlanders”) The Swedes and Danes swore they were all nuts and after this guy I believed them. So the game was played ( I don’t recall who won) and was soon forgotten, but I remembered all the big black bruises on this nutty GT’s chest and just had to shake my head. He got dressed, thought nothing of it and disappeared. Never saw him again.